Quotes by Greek Authors - Page 16

To know, is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge.
Socrates
I heard the voice of that bird, son of Polypas, whose piercing outcryand whose arrival announces to men the season when fieldsare plowed, and the voice of her broke the heart that darkens within me,since other men posess my flourishing acres now,and not for me are the mules dragging the plow through the grainland,since I have given my heart to the restless seafarer's life.
Theognis
For this feeling of wonder shows that you are a philosopher, since wonder is the only beginning of philosophy.
Plato
You will, Judas, my brother. God will give you the strength, as much as you lack, because it is necessary—it is necessary for me to be killed and for you to betray me. We two must save the world. Help me."Judas bowed his head. After a moment he asked, "If you had to betray your master, would you do it?"Jesus reflected for a long time. Finally he said, "No, I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to. That is why God pitied me and gave me the easier task: to be crucified.
Nikos Kazantzakis
Indeed it is generally the case that men are readier to call rogues clever than simpletons honest, and are ashamed of being the second as they are proud of being the first.
Thucydides
Employ your time in improving yourself by other men's writings so that you shall come easily by what others have labored hard for.
Socrates
Success is dependent on effort.
Sophocles
When he endures nothing but endless miseries-- What pleasure is there in living the day after day, Edging slowly back and forth toward death?Anyone who warms their heart with the glow Of flickering hope is worth nothing at all. The noble man should either live with honor or die with honor. That's all there is to be said.
Sophocles
...[T]hese people... are my dangerous accusers because those who hear them suppose that anyone who inquires into such matters... theories about the heavens... and everything below the earth... must be an atheist.
Socrates
Man is the vainest of allcreatures that have their being upon earth. As long as heavenvouchsafes him health and strength, he thinks that he shall come tono harm hereafter, and even when the blessed gods bring sorrow uponhim, he bears it as he needs must, and makes the best of it; forGod Almighty gives men their daily minds day by day. I know allabout it, for I was a rich man once, and did much wrong in thestubbornness of my pride, and in the confidence that my father andmy brothers would support me; therefore let a man fear God in allthings always, and take the good that heaven may see fit to sendhim without vainglory.
Homer
It is vain to expect our prayers to be heard if we do not strive as well as pray.
Aesop
The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future life
Plato
I am a woman who understands the necessity of an impulse whose goal or origin still lie beyond me.
Olga Broumas
Only a philosopher's mind grows wings, since its memory always keeps it as close as possible to those realities by being close to which the gods are divine.
Plato
It is but sorrow to be wise when wisdom profits not.
Sophocles
Philosophy does not promise to secure anything external for man, otherwise it would be admitting something that lies beyond its proper subject-matter. For as the material of the carpenter is wood, and that of statuary bronze, so the subject-matter of the art of living is each person's own life.
Epictetus
Freedom, you see, is having events go in accordance with our will, never contrary to it.
Epictetus
I myself have read the writings and teachings of the heretics, polluting my soul for a while with their abominable notions, though deriving this benefit: I was able to refute them for myself and loathe them even more.
Eusebius
Beauty of style and harmony and grace and good rhythm depend on simplicity – I mean the true simplicity of a rightly and nobly ordered mind and character, not that other simplicity which is only a euphemism for folly.
Plato
Neleus...The son of Poseidon!A birth that came from the mate of a god and a mortal woman.Not plain at all!So it was, when the gods love, mate as humans with humans!From such a union two children were born, both boys.Their mother placed them in a small boat, and dropped it into the sea.The sea loved and saved them, children of Neptune were anyway!The river itself is connected with the sea, fresh water with salt, the land and the sea..."The sea herself guided us like legendary heroes into this new place ..".It couldn't be differently.Children of the Gods aren't we, our race? Have similar origin and similar history! Could not abandoned us, prey and exposed, like the two babies?
Katerina Kostaki
He was a wise man who invented God.
Plato
You may fetter my leg, but Zeus himself cannot get the better of my free will.
Epictetus
One must wait until the evening to see how splendid the day has been.
Sophocles
The man who is completely wise and virtuous has no need of glory, except so far as it…eases his way to action by the greater trust that it procures him.
Plutarch
To be rich is not the end but only a change of worries.
Epicurus
Youth is a blind incongruous beast. It craves food but does not eat, is too timid to eat; it need simply nod to happiness, which strolls by on the street and would willingly stop, but it does not nod; it turns the faucet, permitting time to drain away uselessly and be lost, as though time were water. A beast that does not know it is a beast - such is youth. (Report to Greco)
N. Kazantzakis
As the sun does not wait for prayers and incantations tob e induced to rise, but immediately shines and is saluted by all, so do you also not wait for clappings of hands and shouts of praise tob e induced to do good, but be a doer of good voluntarily and you will be beloved as much as the sun.
Epictetus
Step out of my sunlight.
Diogenes Laërtius
Soon all of you immortalsWill be as dead as we are! Come on then, what are you waiting for?Have you run out of thunderbolts?
Euripides
I am speaking like a book, but I believe that what I am saying is true.
Plato
[W]hen men have both done and suffered injustice and have had experience of both, not being able to avoid the one and obtain the other, they think that they had better agree among themselves to have neither; hence there arise laws and mutual covenants; and that which is ordained by law is termed by them lawful and just. This they affirm to be the origin and nature of justice;—it is a mean or compromise,between the best of all, which is to do injustice and not be punished, and the worst of all, which is to suffer injustice without the power of retaliation; and justice, being at a middle point between the two, is tolerated not as a good, but as the lesser evil…
Plato
Is it not true that the clever rogue is like the runner who runs well for the first half of the course, but flags before reaching the goal: he is quick off the mark, but ends in disgrace and slinks away crestfallen and uncrowned. The crown is the prize of the really good runner who perseveres to the end.
Plato
Once a wolf, always a wolf.
Aesop
Regard your good name as the richest jewel you can possibly be possessed of -- for credit is like fire; when once you have kindled it you may easily preserve it, but if you once extinguish it, you will find it an arduous task to rekindle it again. The way to a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.
Socrates
God save me from fools with a little philosophy—no one is more difficult to reach.
Epictetus
Intelligent individuals learn from every thing and every one; average people, from their experiences. The stupid already have all the answers.
Socrates
I lack nothing, I tell you!”“Nothing?” I asked. “Not even heaven?”He lowered his head and was silent. But after a moment:“Heaven is too high for me. The earth is good, exceptionally good–and near me!”“Nothing is nearer to us than heaven. The earth is beneath our feet and we tread upon it, but heaven is within us.
Nikos Kazantzakis
Good means not merely not to do wrong, but rather not to desire to do wrong.
Democritus
I read your diary. I KNOW.
Mary Papas
If anyone, no matter who, were given the opportunity of choosing from amongst all the nations in the world the set of beliefs which he thought best, he would inevitably—after careful considerations of their relative merits—choose that of his own country. Everyone without exception believes his own native customs, and the religion he was brought up in, to be the best.
Herodotus
In case of dissension, never dare to judge till you've heard the other side.
Euripides
yet if you had a desire for good or beautiful thingsand your tongue were not concocting some evil to sayshame would not hold down your eyesbut rather you would speak about what is just
Sappho
You are born an artist or you are not. And you stay an artist, dear, even if your voice is less of a fireworks. The artist is always there.
Maria Callas
The worst type of man behaves as badly in his waking life as some men do in their dreams.
Plato
Do you know that disease and death must needs overtake us no matter what we are doing? ... What do you wish to be doing when it overtakes you? If you have anything better to be doing when you are so overtaken get to work on that.
Epictetus
By Hecate, the goddess I worship more than all the others, the one I choose to help me in this work, who lives with me deep inside my home, these people won't bring pain into my heart and laugh about it.
Euripides
Superstition would seem to be simply cowardice in regard to the supernatural.
Theophrastus
You know yourself what you are worth in your own eyes; and at what price you will sell yourself. For men sell themselves at various prices. This is why, when Florus was deliberating whether he should appear at Nero's shows, taking part in the performance himself, Agrippinus replied, 'Appear by all means.' And when Florus inquired, 'But why do not you appear?' he answered, 'Because I do not even consider the question.' For the man who has once stooped to consider such questions, and to reckon up the value of external things, is not far from forgetting what manner of man he is.
Epictetus
You can learn a lot from a professional baseball player, if you can get one, which obviously you can't.
Dimitra Ekmektsis
There us a kind of flame in Crete - let us call it "soul" - something more powerful than either life or death. There is pride, obstinacy, valor, and together with these something else inexpressible and imponderable, something which makes you rejoice that you are a human being, and at the same time tremble. (Report to Greco)
N. Kazantzakis
Happiness greatness pride-nothing is secure nothing keeps.
Euripides
As long as Man continues to be the ruthless destroyer of lower living beings, he will never know health or peace. For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love.
Pythagoras
It is more important to know what sort of person has a disease than to know what sort of disease a person has.
Hippocrates
… the fisherman’s daughter grinding serenity in her coffee grinder.
Yiannis Ritsos
Along with success comes a reputation for wisdom.
Euripides
Have you ever sensed that our soul is immortal and never dies?
Plato
God sent his beloved creatures to Datça for them to live longer.
Strabo
To what purpose should I trouble myself in searching out the secrets of the stars, having death or slavery continually before my eyes?
Anaximenes
The moving light, rejoicing in its strength, Sped from the pyre of pine, and urged its way, In golden glory, like some strange new sun...
Aeschylus
Death makes its own choices. Has reasoning an order has a taste…
Angelo Tsanatelis